Rachel's 18th Birthday Today!

Today is the big one! 18 years old today. Now she can buy cigarettes without using someone else's ID.

Rachel's car. What can I say? That thing. I hate it. She had to buy another Honda Accord. Last week, it was intermittently not starting. Finally on Tuesday night, it wouldn't start at all. She left it on the islands. I went there in the morning and had it towed to Dave's garage. After installing the neutral safety switch, it was not that. So, he took it out and replaced the starter. Voila!It starts! Then as she drives away, she calls me. The radio is not working. Damn. Go back. The battery had died and the radio needs to have a code entered. OK, where is the owner's manual, Rachel? Oh, she left it at someone's house. Really? Mechanic said she would need to remove radio to get serial number and take it and VIN # to Honda to get them to look up code in the computer. She was pissed.
She drove to Honda. Turns out, the original owner had pasted the code into the glove box. They entered the 4 digit # and it worked. Happy Day Thursday.

Then, Thursday night, Rachel goes out drinking with her boyfriend. She gets drunk. He can't find the car. After wandering around up town, he LOSES Rachel. She fell down and hit her temple. Blacked out! He finds her, calls a cab and takes her to his apartment. In the morning she calls me crying. Can't remember anything and her head hurts. I pick her up, see the bruise on her temple, and rush her to the emergency room.

She had a CAT scan and is OK, but keep an eye on her.

Sunday, Rachel is driving the car to work, when the RPM's keep going up, but the speed is going down... That's ugly. She calls me crying. She did make it to work. I tell her leave the car and I'll pick you up after work.
9 pm. She calls. She has a ride. 9:40. Ride is still working. Damn it, she is going to drive home. Please no, I said. Well, you can guess... She gets as far as the frigging Wilmington Bridge. The car won't go up hill. Second tow in 5 days.
We were thinking it was the transmission. Dave looked at it this morning. Checked the engine codes. Thank God, it just needs a sensor. So, another $150 day but she will have it back tomorrow.

Pray that the drama is over...